I heard that it is bad for you to eat after 8 at night. Is that true and if so, why?

No food past 8pm = MYTH.

You can eat after 8 but not after midnight or you might turn into a Gremlin

Agreed

I like to keep my carbs very low past that time minus if I did a late night workout but I also have a protein fat meal before bed to get that steady stream of amino acids throughout the night

CCR: ROTFL!

I guest this is why I have pointy ears and green?

Back off my Nat. PB and chicken breast after 8

Would eggs work for that? I've started to take a liking to eating a couple of boiled eggs just before going to bed

ive started using this pre-bed

Milk protein concentrate - Protein powders | myprotein.co.uk

it tastes vile.

I think the myth has certain truth to it. Not basing this on any scientific fact, but based on what I hear from people. It seems that late at night, the hunger strikes, so people tend to eat more at night than they would during the day. I think the person who came up with this "don't eat past 8" thing probably was a rather large person who went on a "successful" starvation diet, which included not eating for a certain time period, therefore lost a lot of weight simply from not eating for an extended period of time.

This debate is not a matter of philosophy or myth, it is common sense. If you eat a lot of carbs, sugar, or fat and shortly after (2-3 hours) go to bed, all of those nutrients will go to storage (fat). However, after a worn out day, eating something high in protein (chicken, turkey, etc.) with little carbs (think <20) and fat (<7 or so) and sugar (<25), then you should not have to worry.

Simple nutrition will tell you to eat carbs and sugar early in the day and the food you consume at night should primarily be protein, but more importantly low in sugar and carbs.

What is highlighted, IS NOT TRUE. For example, If a person needs 2400c in a 24 hours, and consumes 1000, and 500c of that is in the nutrients you specified and lets say two to three hours before bed, the person would STILL be in caloric deficit, and lose weight. While I am not advocating eating refined sugar (most know this), what does matter THE MOST is the law of energy balance.

I sometimes eat lots of carbs before bed WITH Natty peanut butter (say two servings of oatmeal and 1 serving of NB. Hasnt caused one problem. Lots of fat in PB, and a fair amount of carbs in oatmeal....no?

What Matters the most at the end of the day (in healthy individuals) is the caloric balance equation--bottom line. Eating before bed is perfectly fine if the circumfernce of the diet is in order. We do not mislead.

Haha, this is funny!

Beyond the obvious that most people here see is wrong with this. Say, you are training a marathon runner. His next big marathon starts at 6 am the following day. Are you saying it would be unwise of him to ingest a high CHO meal that previous night? Well, you do relies following your "common sense" you would have assured him poor performance in the marathon, Think "glycogen stores".

Protein can be stored as fat aswell, FYI.

I eat after 8m almost every night--- so if you do, you may end up like me!!! I wouldn't do it!!

FF

Yeah FF is like 400lbs cuz he eats after 8pm, you dont want that.

I can't really add anything more than has been said, except to reaffirm it. The big picture, or how many calories you are eating in the day, is what counts. Sure, if you are supposed to eat 2000 calories to maintain, you are at that number, and you eat 300 cals of peanut butter and a 200 cal chicken breast, you will gain mass. But as long as you are fitting your numbers and staying at a deficit, maintainence, or surplus depending on goals, you can eat whatever you'd like at night. I lost 35 pounds of fat over the course of 12 weeks, and ate peanut butter before bed every single night.